For a number of years, some automotive manufactures have provided custom molded splash guards for vehicles of their manufacture. Some manufacturers provide them as standard equipment to be attached to vehicles by a dealer or customer at or subsequent to the time of purchase. Other manufacturers make custom molded splash guards available as an optional accessory or after market product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,709,938 issued Dec. 1, 1987 to Douglas K. Ward et al. entitled Splash Guard (the '938 patent) discloses splash guards each of which was adapted to fit a number of vehicles of a set while giving the appearance of being a custom molded splash guard. The ability of a splash guard to appear to be custom molded for a number of vehicles of similar but differing contours was accomplished through the provision of a flexible flange which overlaid and engaged the face of a panel adjacent to a wheel well.
By the mid 90's a problem had developed, in that many models had projections which interfered with the flanges of the splash guards made in accordance with the '938 patent. On Mar. 3, 1998 U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,690 was issued to Douglas K. Ward et al. under the title Splash Guard on an improvement over the '938 patent. The improvement utilized a flange which included a deformable pleated section allowing further flange deformation to accommodate such projections as welded together flanges, relatively large swoop and cladings. While the splash guards of the Ward et al. patents have enjoyed significant commercial success as have custom molded splash guards designed to fit specific vehicles, the cost of development and manufacture remains relatively high capital costs are high because of the need to develop and produce relatively complex and expensive molds. Manufacturing costs are high if frequent mold changes are required because a splash guard manufacturer's volume does not justify essentially full time utilization of a given mold.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide low cost custom molded splash guards and splash guards which give the appearance of being custom molded. It would also be desirable to provide a simplified splash guard and a process of making splash guards which would enable the inexpensive development, tooling and manufacture of a greater variety of custom molded splash guards and splash guards which, at a minimum of inventory expense and complexity, can be color matched with the vehicles on which they are to be mounted.